Sigmund Loland
The Norweigan University for Sports and Physical Educationsigmulo@online.no

ABSTRACT:
This paper takes a critical look at the origins and characteristics
of the concept of sporting records and examines the challenges to sport
posed by the continuous quest for new records. First, sport records are
defined. Second, the logic of the record is critically examined. It is
argued that the continuous quest for new records represents the
impossible quest for unlimited growth in (biologically) limited systems.
In this way, the quest for records is seen to threaten the very core
idea in competitive sport: that it deals primarily with genuine, human
performances. Third, then, sport disciplines are categorized according
to what is seen as their vulnerability in this respect. Disciplines in
which performance depends heavily upon biologically limited basic
physical qualities (speed, strength, endurance), and in which technology
and tactics play a relatively minor role, are exposed to problematic
consequences. Although, logically, new records can be set again and
again by finer calibration of measurement technology, the moral and
human costs of every improvement will probably increase.

The founding father of the Olympic Movement, Pierre de Coubertin,
referred to the sport record as having the same function in the ideology
of Olympism as the principle of gravity in Newtonian mechanics (Loland
1995). The record was, so to speak, the eternal axiom of sport.

No doubt, Coubertin was right in many ways. The fascination for records
is a key element in our fascination for sports. Records are the stuff of
which legends and myths are made. Johnny Weissmuller's 1924 one hundred
meter freestyle swim under the minute, Wilma Rudolph's fabulous sprint
records from the early 1960s, and Michael Johnson's explosive two hundred
meter record run at the 1996 Atlanta Games, are all paradigmatic examples
of Coubertin's ideals. The record stands as a symbolic message of human
greatness and infinite possibility.

However, as will be shown in this paper, the record idea is not
unproblematic. First, sport records are defined. Second, based on
critical, conceptual analyses, the logic of the record is examined and
possible consequences are discussed of the continuous quest for new
records. Finally, some reflections are presented on alternative lines of
developments in sport in which the status of the record idea is
drastically reduced.

Record Sports, Quasi Record Sports, and Games

A sport record is a performance, measured in exact
mathematical-physical entities (meters, seconds or kilograms) within a
standardized spatio-temporal framework defined by sport rules, that is
better than all previous performances measured in the same way. Typical
record sports are athletics, swimming, and weight lifting.

Record sports have to satisfy strict requirements on both
standardization of conditions and on exact measurement of performance. A
series of sport disciplines satisfy one of these two criteria. In marathon
running and cross-country skiing, performances are measured and compared
by exact timing, but there are no standardized arenas. The Boston Marathon
is rather different from the one in Oslo. The conditions and trails of
cross-country ski races vary from race to race. We sometimes talk of
records here, but in an inaccurate way. Disciplines with exact performance
measurements but without strictly standardized frameworks can perhaps
better be called quasi-record sports.

Other sport disciplines have well-defined standardized spatial
frameworks but do not measure performances in exact ways. In terms of
arenas, soccer and tennis are more or less identical from match to match.
Performances, however, are measured in non-precise entities like goals,
points, sets, and games. Moreover, performances are in a sense relative as
they depend upon social interaction with other competitors. Talk of
records makes little sense. Indeed, one talks of the greatest soccer
player in history, or the best and most exciting tennis match ever played.
But, characteristically, such discussions are always diverse and full of
opposing views, which again probably are their very entertaining raison
d'être. Soccer, tennis, handball, volleyball, basketball, and the like
are not record sports, but games.

In what follows, focus will be placed on the logic and dilemma of
record sports. In the final discussion, the logic of record sports will be
contrasted to those of quasi record sports and games.

Records - Background and Developments

Fascination for great performances and deeds are common to most
cultures and in most historical settings. In Carter and Krüger's Ritual
and Record (1990), a series of scholars illustrates how great athletic
performances have been held as golden standards of excellence in ancient,
medieval, and Renaissance cultures. In the development of modern
competitive sport the last century, however, records have become more
important than ever.

The record idea found its form in a particular historical, social and
cultural setting in last Century's England: the land of sport (Mandell
1976, Guttmann 1978). A mathematical-empirical world-view based on the
insights of modern natural science was predominant, at least among the
educated classes. Classic liberalism emphasized the ideals of equal
opportunity. All citizens ought to compete on equal terms in the pursuit
of happiness. Industrialism was in many ways a carrier of strong ideals of
quantifyable progress within standardized and rationalized frameworks.

This ethos influenced many areas of life. Common among most people was
a strong belief in «the great idea of progress». Human kind entered a new
era of physical, social, cultural, and moral progress. This was the time
of a flourishing international peace movement, of the rise of
international humanist organizations like the Red Cross, of the visionary
Esperanto movement, and the international Olympic Movement (Hoberman
1995).

Within this vision, there was little room for approximate and
non-precise tales of great performances. The sport record can be seen as
the modern, scientific version of the traditional great deed. The British
introduced new rule systems to secure equal opportunity and exact
measurements of performance. Standardization of sport arenas and
improvement of measurement technology enabled comparison of performances
over time. According to Mandell (1976), the first official sport records
were written down («recorded») during an athletic meet between the
universities Cambridge and Oxford in 1868.

Around the turn of the Century, due to improved communication systems
in general and to the establishment of the modern Olympic Movement in
particular, competitive sport became an international phenomenon. The
quest for progress and new records is perhaps most clearly articulated in
the Olympic motto citius, altius, fortius. Sport became the
paradigmatic example of the Zeitgeist of the time, or, as Korsgaard
(1990) expresses it, the predominant ritual for the myth of progress.

Sport Records - Current Status

The development and increasing importance of the mass media in this
century enforced the strong public interest taken in sports. Reports on
sport became an important part of newspapers and popular magazines. The
definite break through came with the electronic media, in particular TV.
Today millions and in fact billions of people can watch sport events live,
a possibility which previously had been the privilege of a few thousands
present at the stadium.

With the possibility for pay off in terms of prestige and profit that
follows from an audience worldwide, the flow of resources into sport
increased. Systematic selection of talents enhanced the possibility to
select the genetically best gifted. Through improved socio-economic
frameworks, increased standards of living, and the development of exercise
science, the potential of individual talents is utilized to an increasing
degree. Technology and the quality of equipment have improved immensely.
In track and field, the tartan surface and ultra light running shoes have
been significant in the setting of new records, in pole vault new
materials changed radically the potential for performance.

And indeed, the improvements in most sports have been formidable.
Raymond T. Stefani (1994) has shown that, from 1924 and to 1984, record
disciplines like athletics, swimming, and weight lifting, have had an
approximate record improvement of 2,2% per Olympic Games. In other words,
this sixty-year span has experienced a 30% improvement in performances.

To take an example: In 1924, the already mentioned Johnny Weissmuller,
the first man to play Tarzan on film, won Olympic Gold on the hundred
meter freestyle as the first swimmer ever below the minute. Recorded time
was 59.0. During the Moscow Games in 1980, the Russian Vladimir Salnikov
won the fifteen hundred-meter freestyle on 14.58.27. Salnikov was the
first ever below fifteen minutes on the distance. In other words, he used
less than a minute per hundred-meter and could have competed with fifteen
swimmers of Weismuller's caliber.

Record improvements can be described exactly and understood as a
complex product of historical and social forces. However, in order to work
with the idea of the record in a critical and systematic way, there is
need for deeper insights in its basic characteristics; its distinctive
logic.

The Logic of the Sport Record

Sport's central characteristics are competition, performance, to
distinguish winners and losers. The idea of the record is a clear
expression of a particular social practice with its own goals and values.
At the same time, the idea represents something new. The development from
pre-modern ideas of great performances to the record is not just a gradual
development along a scale. It is a qualitative step.

Great performances described in tales of heroic deeds from the past or
through a variety of rites de passage, or initiation rites, from
different cultures, all have a limit. They represent a stable standard.
Consider the Masaii initiation rite in which a young boy is supposed to
kill a lion to become man. When the animal is killed, an aim has been
reached. The boy has become a man. Enough is enough.

Record sports, on the other hand, accept no well defined, static goal.
The logic here is that any best performance, no matter how ground breaking
it is, has to be challenged immediately. The day after the Norwegian
runner Vebjørn Rodal won the eight hundred-meter of the 1996 Atlanta
Games, the largest subscription newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten,
immediately asked in its editorial when Rodal would break the 1.40 limit.
What will be the next magical limit? 1.39? And then 1.38.5, 1.38, 4, 1.38,
39 et cetera. The logic of the record is this: Enough is never enough!

Logically, records can be improved infinitely. During the 18th
century, seconds were split in tenths of seconds, tenths were split in
hundreds, hundreds in thousands, and, as measurement technology improves,
thousands will perhaps be split in millionths of seconds (Inizan 1994). It
is possible to detect even microscopic improvements.

And indeed, new records are set continuously. Some scholars, among them
Fredrick (1986) who have analyzed running events, portray a steady
development. Graphically speaking, the rate of improvement is linear. The
most optimistic, like the athletic coach Frank Dick (1997), boldly states
that ideas of limits are self-imposed obstacles and products of the human
mind.

Stefani's (1994) analyses challenge such points. References to an
average 2,2% improvement rate over the last sixty years hide an important
point. What is not said, is that the improvement curve flattens. There was
a consistent improvement of results in the Olympic Games from 1965 to 1972
and a diminished improvement of results from 1976 to 1992. In fact, within
the last sixteen years, the average improvement rate has decreased to
1,4%.

Stefani explains the improvements from 1952 to 1972 mainly by referring
to the intense competition between the USA and the Soviet Union, and the
decreased rate of improvement from 1976 to 1992 by a less «ideologized»
sport, stricter doping control, and international boycotts of the Games.
However, the flattening of the record curve can be understood as an
expression of a more serious dilemma.

The Record Dilemma

In essence, the record dilemma is that the continuous quest for new
records is built on the impossible demand for unlimited growth within
limited systems.

Record sports tend to reduce the potential for progress to one narrow
human capacity such as the ability to run fast, jump high or long, or
throw far. As biological beings, our capacities for improving speed,
explosivity and strength are limited. It is, for example, inconceivable to
think of a hundred-meter sprint in, say, 5.00 seconds. Our phylogenetic
potential does not change over night, and a hundred-meter sprint is still
one hundred meters long. If sprinters are to become significantly faster,
genetic dispositions will probably have to be changed.

The hundred-meter sprint is an extreme example. As recent world records
illustrate, for instance the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj's lowering of
Morcelis' three years old fifteen hundred-meter record with 1.17 seconds
to 3.26.00 (Rome, July 14, 1998), many disciplines have probably still a
long way to go before approaching human biological limits. But without
radical changes in the standardized frameworks for performance, the quest
for records will, sooner or later, lead towards pressing dilemmas here as
well.

Scientific and technological innovations provide radical new
possibilities. Biochemical manipulation of athletic performance is called
doping, or «artificial performance enhancement». Genetic make up is said
to be responsible for between 25% and 50% of an athlete's performance.
Based on his own research, Claude Bouchard (1997) has estimated that
within fifteen to twenty years researchers will be able to draw a complete
map of "the performance genes". Applications of radical biotechnology in
sport are probably not as far away as we would like to believe. The
Finnish philosopher and cultural critic Georg Henrik von Wright (1989)
talks about «the technological imperative»: if a certain technology is
available, and if it is efficient as means towards desired ends, it will
be used no matter the costs.

The ecological crisis illustrates how the quest for unlimited material
and economic growth is inconsistent with the limited resources of the
earth. In high performance sports, the quest for records can lead toward a
human ecological catastrophe, or a «dehumanization of sports», to use a
phrase from John Hoberman (1992). The obsession with records threatens the
very core idea in competitive sport: that it deals primarily with genuine,
human performances. Sport becomes humanistic risk zones.

Hard and Soft Core Record Sports

There is need for some modifications here. Not all record sports are
equally exposed to the record dilemma. Moreover, as the doping scandals of
the 1998 Tour de France clearly illustrate, specialized quasi
record sports such as professional cycling in which performance is highly
dependent upon one basic physical quality, such as oxygen uptake, might be
just as vulnerable as record disciplines. The important point is the
discipline's status as more or less closed, or limited, systems.

In an open system, there are a series of variables that influence the
outcome. Characteristically, in these systems elements or variables may
come and go. There is no stable homeostatic condition (Kneer and Nassehi
1993). In open system sports, basic talent of athletes co-varies with
training expertise, technical and tactical skills, and the use and
development of technology and equipment. And, in ball games, performance
is always relative to the technical and tactical moves of the opponent(s).

In a limited system, most variables have a defined maximum value, or an
end state. Limited systems are stable and more or less closed to external
influences and new elements (Kneer and Nassehi 1993). In limited system
sports, the key variables underlying performance are basic physical
qualities like speed, strength, and endurance. Such qualities are linked
more closely to genetic talent and have certain biological limits that are
hard to transcend.

The thesis, then, is that the greater importance of basic physical
qualities in a given record sport, and the lesser importance of technical
and tactical skills, and of technology, the more vulnerable the given
sport becomes to negative consequences of the record dilemma.

Technique

In sport disciplines like the hundred-meter sprint and long jumping,
performance depends to a large extent on development of genetically given
talent in terms of strength and speed. As Sir Roger Bannister (1997) puts
it: "The faculty [of speed] is inborn". Indeed, to learn sport technique,
that is, to learn a specific series of movement elements to solve movement
tasks in sport situations (Martin 1991) is important to a certain extent.
At the same time, running belongs to basic movement skills and efficient
running style is closely related to genetic dispositions. Historically,
the development of movement technique in sprint and long jumping support
this thesis. Apart from the starting position in sprint, there has been
little technical development. Within this perspective, these disciplines
appear as rather closed systems.

In record sports like swimming and javelin throwing, technical
developments are significant and the learning and systematic development
of technique is of great importance. New and finer calibration and scales
for records can be developed as new technical solutions are introduced.
Even it these disciplines are exposed to negative consequences of the
record dilemma as well, they have the characteristics of more open
systems.

Tactics

Good tactics is generally understood as choice of the most efficient
means within the rules for successful performance in competition (Martin
1991). In record sports, the point is to run and swim as fast, throw and
jump as far, and lift as much as possible. Individual preparation and
social interaction before a competition can be considered tactical
dispositions. However, within the competition, each competitor has to
distribute his or her resources in the best way possible. In this sense,
the hundred-meter sprint in swimming and athletics poses less challenge on
tactical dispositions - the point is full speed towards the finishing line
- than do the fifteen hundred-meter and ten thousand-meter respectively.
Common to these disciplines, however, if practiced like true record
sports, is that the main tactical concern is towards oneself and towards
distributing one's own resources optimally. In terms of tactics, record
sports are rather primitive and appear as more or less closed systems.

Technology and Equipment

Record sports vary on the open and closed system-scale according to the
role played by technology and equipment. A better grip on the bar may
contribute to performance enhancement for the weight lifter. Lighter
running shoes and new surfaces influence the performance of the sprinter.
In swimming, bathing suits with a minimum of friction in water have a
similar influence.

However, in these sport disciplines, the effects on performance of
technological and equipment innovations are rather marginal. The
disciplines are, from a technological point of view, very limited systems.
In record sports like javelin throwing, speed skating, or rifle shooting,
new technology may significantly influence the result. These disciplines
are more open to changes and to new calibrations of old record schemes.

Hence, it is possible to distinguish between limited systems in terms
of "hard core" record sports in which almost all emphasis is put on basic
physical qualities, and more open and softer record sports in which there
is more room for technological, technical and/or tactical innovations and
thus for record improvements without pushing biological performance limits
too hard (see figure 1).

basic
qualities

technology

technique

tactics

sprint athl.

x

-

-

-

sprint swimm.

x

-

x

-

10 000 m athl.

x

-

x

-

1500 m swimm.

x

-

x

-

javelin throwing

x

x

x

-

speed skating

x

x

x

-

figure 1: Some examples on hard core and soft core record sports. Hard
core record sports put emphasis on one or two of these variables, and
appear as very limited systems.

Future Scenarios

By all means, record sports may be treated somewhat unfairly here. The
obsession with results and winning leads to problematic consequences in
all sports. However, quasi record-sports and team sports like football and
handball are blessed with more open skill demands. Performances are not
measured in exact mathematical-physical qualities. Skills do not to the
same degree depend on basic physical qualities like endurance, strength,
and speed. Pills and injections can make an athlete faster and stronger.
The only way to cultivate one's talent is through social interaction with
others. No biochemical substance can, however, develop ball technique or
the skill of making the right tactical choices. The "hard core" record
sports represent, from my point of view, a humanistic risk zone in sport
and ought to be changed towards softer variants or towards games.

Is this then a prediction on the decline and destruction of sports as
we know them? Not necessarily. The interest in top level sport has never
been as strong as it is today. The interest however, can somehow change
direction towards sports with less specialized and less standardized skill
demands. There are signs of this development today. Ball games and
individual sports in closeness to nature are on their way up among the
masses and as high performance sports. During the 1996 Atlanta games,
soccer attracted the highest number of spectators. Moreover, in Atlanta
new Olympic disciplines such as mountain biking and beach volleyball were
introduced. During the winter games in Nagano in 1998, snow-board was part
of the program for the very first time.

Another possibility is that the disciplines most exposed to the
negative effects of the record mania can find new forms. Perhaps there is
some hope in the view that social systems regenerate and change under
pressure. During great events, among them the Olympic Games, the norm has
developed that the point is not to set records, but to cross the finishing
line first. Tactical running on the ten thousand-meter is the rule rather
than the exception, and indeed, they offer excitement and entertainment
just as much as record attempts. To some disciplines, increased emphasis
on tactics might be a way out of the record dilemma. The point is,
perhaps, to turn record sports into games.

Concluding Comments

Sometimes, however, the time for change seems far away. During Grand
Prix events in athletics, world records are the aim towards which every
organizer strives. The paradigmatic example of a record culture out of
control is the well paid "hares" that are supposed to keep up the speed
for the potential record setters. I suppose I am not the only one here who
hopes for the hare to succeed and win the whole race. This, in fact,
happens occasionally, for instance at 1981 Bislett Grand Prix in the early
80s where Steve Ovett's "hare" Tom Byers led the fifteen hundred meter
race from start to finish and won. Cheering from the crowd was
overwhelming and persistent. People had taken the message: It is still
possible for the individual to beat the system.

In the world of sports, classical disciplines and hard core record
sports like the throw, the lift, the jump, and the run are perhaps the
most beautiful and the most dramatic we have got. And, the fascination for
the classic disciplines will continue. However, as record sports, they
might not get the predominant role reserved for them by Pierre de
Coubertin. Perhaps will the record ideal end up in a similar way as the
ideal of amateurism? It has to be re-interpreted and softened in order for
top level sport to proceed.

Notes

(1) The argument exemplified in figure 1 may be criticized as building
on a simplistic and reductionistic understanding in which performance is
considered a result of a biological organism that can be calculated,
programmed and controlled completely. Obviously, this is not the case.
Sport performances are the complex results of a large number of factors
working together. Biologically, psychologically, and socially, human
beings are open systems indeed. The point, however, is that hard core
record sports focus very strongly or one or a few of these factors.
Performances are extremely specialized and excludes a variety of possible
variables that could have made the system more open and thus less
vulnerable.

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